I have several e-mailboxes. The one most likely to receive spam mailings has many today asking that I donate to a man named Doug Burgum who is running to be the next President of these United States in…well, it doesn't say what party but the layout of the message and the design of the typography is the same as all those messages I received wanting me to donate to Donald Trump and all those messages I received wanting me to donate to Ron DeSantis. So I guessed Republican.
Still, I wasn't sure who Doug Burgum was so I looked him up. He is, of course, a Republican. He got wealthy in the software business and now he's the governor of North Dakota. The e-mail I got mentions none of this. It mentions nothing about any of his political positions and his own website says just about nothing about them either. A little Googling of press coverage though tells me that he loves signing bills that restrict abortion and/or are against transgender folks so I don't think he's getting any money from me, now or ever.
But even if I wanted to donate serious bucks to his campaign, I'm not sure he'd get it if I clicked the links in that e-mail and gave it my credit card info. Way down in it where some people might not notice, it says "Paid for by WinRed. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee." So Burgum didn't authorize this mailing and I'm wondering how much of what I gave, if any, would make its way to him or his campaign. In fact, it's got me to wondering if I'd responded to all those mailings that appeared to be Donald Trump whether any money they got out of me would have gone anywhere near Donald Trump. Maybe I misjudged the guy.